[February 28, 2014]LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former
football star Darren Sharper, wanted by New Orleans police as a suspect
in two rapes, was arrested on Thursday in Los Angeles, where he pleaded
not guilty a week ago to charges of drugging four other women and raping
two of them.

The two women accusing him in New Orleans say Sharper, 38, and an
acquaintance, Erik Nunez, 26, each raped them both at the same
location on the night of September 23, 2013, according to a New
Orleans Police Department statement on Thursday.

No other details of the alleged assaults were disclosed.

Sharper's attorney, Nandi Campbell, said neither she nor her client
had any comment.

Sharper, who resides in Miami Beach, Florida, was taken into custody
on a fugitive warrant on Thursday evening in Los Angeles, though
additional details of his arrest were not available, Los Angeles
Police Department spokeswoman Nuria Vanegas said.

Authorities did not disclose any information on the possible
whereabouts of Nunez.

Sharper, a defensive back who played 14 years in the National
Football League and helped the New Orleans Saints to a Super Bowl
title in 2010, pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and drug charges
in Los Angeles on February 20.

According to Los Angeles prosecutors, Sharper drugged two women with
spiked drinks and raped one of them in a hotel room in October, then
drugged two more women and raped one of them at the same hotel in
January.

He pleaded not guilty last Thursday to two counts of rape by use of
drugs, four counts of furnishing a controlled substance and one
count of possession of a controlled substance.

The five-time Pro Bowl player, suspended from his job as an NFL
Network on-air commentator after his arrest in January, was released
on $1 million bail in Los Angeles.

Prosecutors had wanted to raise the bail amount to $10 million,
citing sex crime investigations against him in Louisiana, Nevada,
Arizona and Florida.

On the same day that Sharper appeared in Los Angeles court, police
in Miami Beach released a report detailing a woman's allegation that
the football star had also raped her.

The woman told investigators she was intoxicated when she went to
Sharper's condo in 2012 and fell asleep. When she woke up, she
realized Sharper was having sex with her and left, according to the
police report.

The woman reported the 2012 incident to Miami Beach police two days
after Sharper was arrested in Los Angeles on January 17, police
said. No charges in the case have been filed.

(Reporting Kathy Finn in New Orleans and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle;
Editing by Steve Gorman and Janet Lawrence)